Agra: A special SC/ST court in Aligarh has sentenced five people to life imprisonment for kidnapping a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Sept 2007 to prevent her from testifying in her own rape case — a crime the UP court ruled was a “deliberate ploy to eliminate a key witness and derail the trial”. Despite almost two decades of search and investigation, she remains “untraceable”.
The convicts — now aged between 40 and 50 years — were punished under IPC section 364 (kidnapping or abducting a person with the intent to murder them or put them in danger of murder) and section 3(2)(v) of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Delivering the verdict, the court of special judge-II (SC/ST Act) Pratibha Saxena on Thursday observed that “the kidnapped girl has not been recovered even after 19 years” and held that “showing undue sympathy would embolden criminals and discourage victims and witnesses from coming forward”.
On Sept 28, 2007, the girl’s father, filing the police complaint, claimed the accused — Amar Singh, Lekhraj, Babulal, Suresh (Hathras residents) and Usha Devi from Aligarh — armed with country-made pistols, barged into his house at a village in Aligarh district. The complaint stated: “They took away my daughter, who was a complainant in her rape case registered against some of the same accused. She was kidnapped to stop her from testifying in that case…”
During trial in the kidnapping case, the prosecution examined seven witnesses and argued that the accused targeted the Dalit family to intimidate them and obstruct justice in the other case.
“In the separate rape case which was being simultaneously heard before court, the accused were acquitted earlier this year. Sadly, the girl couldn’t appear and witnesses turned hostile. The kidnapping case was filed by her father six months after the rape case,” special public prosecutor Chaman Kumar Sharma said on Friday.
Each convict has been awarded life sentences under IPC 364 and the SC/ST Act along with Rs 10,000 fine in each offence. Co-accused Satish Pandey was acquitted due to “lack of sufficient evidence”.
Rejecting the leniency plea, the court said that “the justice system must reassure vulnerable sections of society that crimes against them, regardless of the accused’s influence, will invite stringent punishment”.
Courtesy : TOI
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